Maltese meteorological and agricultural proverbs

Abstract

The Maltese bidwi (peasant, farmer) in the course of centuries recorded his experiences in pithy proverbial sayings whereby he transmitted to his children his practical knowledge of weather-lore and landcraft collected from personal observation, by no means infallible though stiIl a good guidance especially to the tillers of the land. The list of such proverbial sayings which J. Aquilina has grouped under various headings is the first of the kind collected from various authentic sources and from the living language - direct from the bdiewa. Classified under various headings they form the corpus of Maltese and Gozitan husbandry and weather-lore. Some of them, perhaps the larger portion, stand the test of scientific proof, while others are only approximate prognostications subject to the unpredictable variations of weather changes from one year to another.